A scary thing happened on the way to the Movie Forums - Horrorcrammers

Road Games is fab.

Rock was in that theater.

So this tracks.

Getting a little crispy there, MKS. Like a chicken fried mother****er.

Thank you.

I actually rewatched Resurrection. It’s clearly the worst of the franchise but it could be among the most fun. It’s certainly more entertaining than the relentlessly dull 5.

Neither are close to Kills though. Among the best.

Yes, I agree that Resurrection is nowhere near Kills and is therefore one of the best.

Finally.

Obviously Kills is superior to Halloween 5. Nothing could possibly be more nothing than 5. So, yes, Kills still manages to be better than something, even while clearly being a total embarrassment of a film.

You have to watch Halloween Ends.

I imagine I will at some point. And I'm already annoyed at the prospect.

It’s also obviously superior to 6, Resurrection and Zombie’s remake.

I haven't seen the first two but I wouldn't be surprised if it was better than those.


I'd probably put it on par with Zombies remake. Both seemed like they were devised from some cringey teen brain. Zombies, by some nihilistic no-friend doofus who just wants his horror films to be badass (but aren't). And Kills by the kind of pimply shit who thinks by adding the worst kind of obvious political subtext, they are 'saying something important' (but aren't).


And, as it turns out, both are zero percent fun to watch in their failure.


But, yes, they are better than studio hackjobs, made by people who clearly don't care about doing anything at all.

I think Kills had the misfortune of colliding with reality. It was written and shot in 2019, roughly 6 months before January 6th or the Floyd protests. Then Covid delayed its release for a year.

Then it drops in 2021 and by that time audiences are aggressive towards the depiction of a loud obnoxious mob as being too on the nose and cashing in on the political climate.

While the repetition of “evil dies tonight” was a bludgeoning facsimile for “MAGA,” I think it’s unfair to dismiss everything it does as obvious, in that Green is attempting to play in the same territory as Lang’s M and Fury, which are great but not exactly subtle political commentaries of their era.

It reminds me of the reception to Killing Them Softly, which was also maligned for obvious and obnoxious political subtext (or just text, honestly), but it’s only grown in reputation as we get further from the context in which it dropped.

the scary movie thing. y'know. day #22


Blade (Stephen Norrington, 1998)

Shit's raw.

One of the best comic book movies ever.

I wasn't necessarily thinking about Kills as being specifically about Jan 6 or Floyd protests. For me it was just an offshoot of the mob brain rot that has been in full force in our politics since 2015/2016. And my issues weren't so much that it was too on the nose, as it was just so poorly done. Personally I would be all about a Halloween political riff, even one that was completely obvious, if it at least wasn't just so mind numbingly bad.

I feel like the craft, portrayal of Michael (maintaining him as a disinterested and unknowable force of evil), it being an ensemble slasher, and the subversive sidelining of Laurie (maintaining that victimizers are far more important to the victim than vice versa) were enough to carry the film through its most hamfisted moments.

Even when I was watching Anthony Michael Hall shout “Evil Dies Tonight!” for the millionth time or wondering why he, Annie and the Nurse from the first movie all would want to hang out on Halloween, I was mainly just impressed that it was TRYING to be something more than another cynical sequel in a franchise/genre filled with almost nothing but.

Scare Me. Two writers tell each other scary stories while waiting for the power to come back on. I liked how the stories they told, how they tell them, and how the other reacts informs you of their character. It’s charming for the first 45 minutes but overall is less a movie and more of an improv exercise.

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. Based on the children’s book of the same name: teens find a book in a haunted house that can conjure the stories within it. It’s made about as good as it can be when adapting something like this. Kids who are into spooky stories will probably love it but I was mostly bored.

Memory: The Origins of Alien. The title of the documentary speaks for itself. Plenty of information on O’Bannon’s inspirations and references when coming up with the story, mythology and history the film draws from, the similarities and differences compared to other movies at the time, and an extended step by step process into the making of the chest burster scene. As a big fan of Alien this movie was my crack. Cue my pupils dilating like Requiem for a Dream.

I don't know about that.



I think both films were meh. Both long-overdue franchise "enders" that were disappointing.

But does reading into Strode's sidelining really do that much heavy lifting that all of its really obvious failures can be waved away? Like, I guess great if you can work that magic for yourself, but I'm rarely compelled by pulling out fragments and giving graceful readings of some kind of thematic unity. Breaking down a film like this, as if there is an intellectual code to crack, just seems like a waste of energy. Even when I'm watching clearly and deliberately 'cerebral cinema' (Brakhage, Snow, Akerman), I still need what the visceral impact of what is on screen to be its defining characteristic. If Wavelength or Mothlight or Jeanne Dielman didn't move me simply by the presentation of their images and ideas, I'd wave those mother****ers away pretty quickly too. So, even if I want to think of Kill on a deeper level (which I find it very hard to be compelled to do, as I've already got a clear indicator of its stupidity laying right on the surface of the film), I still have to contend with how bad and soulless its thematic and cinematic presentation is.



Fair enough. But I am also extremely dubious about trying to stuff meaning foie-gras style into a flaccidly rendered, and still extremely unimaginative film. Yes, it is trying to be more. But is it trying to be more, simply to appear that it is more? Or does Green really have something to say here? Is he imbuing any passion into his ideas and his images? As an outsider, I can never know for certain, but I have my sneaking suspicions that the whole thing is a kind of distancing job he is doing to play that he's not just slumming it in one of the worst horror franchises in the known universe. I certainly don't see any evidence up on the screen, or in any of the reactions it gave me, to think any differently. But as always, if you're finding these things there, more power to you. I just think you're mental on this one.